Primitive elvish

nēnā

adjective. wet

Derivations

  • NEN “water, water, [ᴱ√] flow” ✧ PE17/052; PE17/167

Derivatives

  • Q. nenda “wet” ✧ PE17/052; PE17/167
  • S. nîn “wet, *watery” ✧ PE17/052

Variations

  • nēna ✧ PE17/167
Primitive elvish [PE17/052; PE17/167] Group: Eldamo. Published by

nenda

noun. water

Derivations

  • NEN “water, water, [ᴱ√] flow”

Element in

  • S. Núrnen “Sad Water, Dead Water” ✧ PE17/087
Primitive elvish [PE17/087] Group: Eldamo. Published by

nen

root. water, water, [ᴱ√] flow

A root connected to water and (to a lesser extent) rivers for much of Tolkien’s life. It first appearance was as ᴱ√NENE “flow” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, though Tolkien marked both the root and the gloss with a “?”; it had derivatives like ᴱQ. nen “river, †water” and ᴱQ. nēnu “yellow water lily” (QL/65). Under this entry Tolkien noted that “nen water is perhaps different from nen river, which is from neře” (QL/65); elsewhere in QL Tolkien gave ᴱ√NERE² or ᴱ√NEŘE [NEÐE] as the basis for nen (nend-) “river”, a root he said was often confused with ᴱ√NESE “give to feed; feed, pasture; graze” (QL/66). In the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon he had G. nenn “(1) water, (2) river” and G. nendil “water fay” which were probably a blending of NENE and NEÐE, as well as G. nern “brook” from ✱nere¹ (GL/60), probably corresponding to ᴱ√NERE² from QL.

In The Etymologies of the 1930s Tolkien had unglossed ᴹ√NEN with derivatives like ᴹQ. nén/N. nen “water” and ᴹQ. nelle “brook” (Ety/NEN), whereas ᴱ√NERE² and ᴱ√NEÐE from the 1910s seems to have been abandoned. The primitive form √NEN or nē̆n “water” continued to appear regularly in Tolkien’s writings from the 1940s, 50s and 60s (PE17/52, 167; PE19/102; PE21/64, 79).

Derivatives

  • nē̆n “water”
    • Q. nén “water, water, [ᴱQ.] river”
    • S. nen “water; lake, pool; (lesser) river, water; lake, pool; (lesser) river, [ᴱN.] stream”
  • nēnā “wet” ✧ PE17/052; PE17/167
    • Q. nenda “wet” ✧ PE17/052; PE17/167
    • S. nîn “wet, *watery” ✧ PE17/052
  • nenda “water”
  • Q. nén “water, water, [ᴱQ.] river” ✧ PE17/052; SA/nen
  • Q. nenda “wet” ✧ PE17/167
  • Q. nendë “lake, lake, [ᴹQ.] pool” ✧ PE17/052
  • ᴺQ. nendo “water mead, *watered plain”
  • S. nen “water; lake, pool; (lesser) river, water; lake, pool; (lesser) river, [ᴱN.] stream” ✧ PE17/052; SA/nen

Element in

Variations

  • NEN- ✧ PE17/145
  • NĒ̆N ✧ PE17/167
  • nen ✧ SA/nen
Primitive elvish [PE17/052; PE17/145; PE17/167; SA/nen] Group: Eldamo. Published by

nē̆n

noun. water

Derivations

  • NEN “water, water, [ᴱ√] flow”

Derivatives

  • Q. nén “water, water, [ᴱQ.] river”
  • S. nen “water; lake, pool; (lesser) river, water; lake, pool; (lesser) river, [ᴱN.] stream”
Primitive elvish [PE19/102; PE21/79] Group: Eldamo. Published by